An Iranian court has issued the first death sentence linked to recent protests, convicting the unnamed person of “enmity against God” and “spreading corruption on Earth,” state media reports.
Iran’s Revolutionary Court issued the sentence to a protester who allegedly set fire to a government building, reported state media.
They were convicted on the charge of “disturbing public order and peace, community, and colluding to commit a crime against national security, war and corruption on Earth, war through arson, and intentional destruction,” according to state news agency IRNA on Sunday.
Five others who took part in the protests received sentences of five to 10 years in prison, convicted of “collusion to commit a crime against national security and disturbance of public peace and order.”
IRNA added that these decisions are preliminary and can be appealed. The news agency did not name the protester who received the death sentence or provide details on when or where they committed the alleged crime.
Iran has been rocked by anti-regime protests since September in the greatest demonstration of dissent in recent years, sparked by outrage over the death of Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish Iranian woman who had been detained by the morality police for allegedly not wearing her hijab properly.
Security forces have killed at least 326 people since the protests began two months ago, according to the Norway-based Iran Human Rights NGO.
That figure includes 43 children and 25 women, the group said in an update to its death toll on Saturday, saying that its published number represented an “absolute minimum.”
CNN cannot independently verify the figure as non-state media, the internet, and protest movements in Iran have all been suppressed. Death tolls vary by opposition groups, international rights organizations and journalists tracking the ongoing protests.
Despite the threat of arrests – and harsher punishments for those involved – Iranian celebrities and athletes have stepped forward to support the anti-government protests in recent weeks.
On Friday, United Nations experts urged Iranian authorities “to stop indicting people with charges punishable by death for participation, or alleged participation, in peaceful demonstrations” and “to stop using the death penalty as a tool to squash protests.”
Iranian security forces have killed at least 326 people since nationwide protests erupted two months ago, the Norway-based Iran Human Rights NGO (IHRNGO) group has claimed.
That figure includes 43 children and 25 women, the group said in an update to its death toll on Saturday – saying that its published number represented an “absolute minimum.”
CNN cannot independently verify the figure as non-state media, the internet, and protest movements in Iran have all been suppressed. Death tolls vary by opposition groups, international rights organizations, and journalists tracking the ongoing protests.
Iran is facing one of its biggest and most unprecedented shows of dissent following the death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish Iranian woman detained by the morality police allegedly for not wearing her hijab properly.
Public anger over her death has combined with a range of grievances against the Islamic Republic’s oppressive regime to fuel the demonstrations, which continue despite law makers urging the country’s judiciary to “show no leniency” to protesters.
Despite the threat of arrests – and harsher punishments for those involved – Iranian celebrities and athletes have stepped forward to support the anti-government protests in recent weeks.
IHRNGO has urged the international community to take “firm and timely action” over the rising death toll and reiterated the need to establish a mechanism to “hold the Islamic Republic authorities accountable for their gross violation of human rights.”
“Establishing an international investigation and accountability mechanism by the UN will both facilitate the process of holding the perpetrators accountable in the future and increase the cost of the continuous repression by the Islamic Republic,” IHRNGO director Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam said.
Since the start of the protests, deaths have been recorded across 22 provinces, according to the IHRNGO. Most were reported in Sistan and Baluchistan, Tehran, Mazandaran, Kurdistan, and Gilan provinces.
The rights group said that dozens of protesters face “security-related charges” and are at risk of being executed.
On Friday, United Nations experts urged Iranian authorities “to stop indicting people with charges punishable by death for participation, or alleged participation, in peaceful demonstrations” and “to stop using the death penalty as a tool to squash protests.”
An Iranian man who lived for 18 years in Paris’ Charles de Gaulle Airport, and whose saga loosely inspired the Steven Spielberg film “The Terminal,” died Saturday in the airport that he long called home, officials said.
Mehran Karimi Nasseri died after a heart attack in the airport’s Terminal 2F around midday, according an official with the Paris airport authority. Police and a medical team treated him but were not able to save him, the official said. The official was not authorized to be publicly named.
Nasseri lived in the airport’s Terminal 1 from 1988 until 2006, first in legal limbo because he lacked residency papers and later by apparent choice.
Year in and year out, he slept on a red plastic bench, making friends with airport workers, showering in staff facilities, writing in his diary, reading magazines and surveying passing travelers.
FILE — An Aug. 5, 2004, photo of Mehran Karimi Nasseri, originally from Iran, in Paris’ Charles de Gaulle Airport.
Eric Fougere/VIP Images/Corbis/Getty Images
Staff nicknamed him Lord Alfred, and he became a mini-celebrity among passengers.
“Eventually, I will leave the airport,” he told The Associated Press in 1999, smoking a pipe on his bench, looking frail with long thin hair, sunken eyes and hollow cheeks. “But I am still waiting for a passport or transit visa.”
Nasseri was born in 1945 in Soleiman, a part of Iran then under British jurisdiction, to an Iranian father and a British mother. He left Iran to study in England in 1974. When he returned, he said, he was imprisoned for protesting against the shah and expelled without a passport.
He applied for political asylum in several countries in Europe. The UNHCR in Belgium gave him refugee credentials, but he said his briefcase containing the refugee certificate was stolen in a Paris train station.
French police later arrested him, but couldn’t deport him anywhere because he had no official documents. He ended up at Charles de Gaulle in August 1988 and stayed.
Further bureaucratic bungling and increasingly strict European immigration laws kept him in a legal no-man’s land for years.
When he finally received refugee papers, he described his surprise, and his insecurity, about leaving the airport. He reportedly refused to sign them, and ended up staying there several more years until he was hospitalized in 2006, and later lived in a Paris shelter.
Those who befriended him in the airport said the years of living in the windowless space took a toll on his mental state. The airport doctor in the 1990s worried about his physical and mental health, and described him as “fossilized here.” A ticket agent friend compared him to a prisoner incapable of “living on the outside.”
In the weeks before his death, Nasseri had been again living at Charles de Gaulle, the airport official said.
Nasseri’s mind-boggling tale loosely inspired 2004’s “The Terminal” starring Tom Hanks, as well as a French film, “Lost in Transit,” and an opera called “Flight.”
In “The Terminal,” Hanks plays Viktor Navorski, a man who arrives at JFK airport in New York from the fictional Eastern European country of Krakozhia and discovers that an overnight political revolution has invalidated all his traveling papers. Viktor is dumped into the airport’s international lounge and told he must stay there until his status is sorted out, which drags on as unrest in Krakozhia continues.
No information was immediately available about survivors.
PARIS (AP) — An Iranian man who lived for 18 years in Paris’ Charles de Gaulle Airport and whose saga loosely inspired the Steven Spielberg film “The Terminal” died Saturday in the airport that he long called home, officials said.
Mehran Karimi Nasseri died after a heart attack in the airport’s Terminal 2F around midday, according an official with the Paris airport authority. Police and a medical team treated him but were not able to save him, the official said. The official was not authorized to be publicly named.
Nasseri lived in the airport’s Terminal 1 from 1988 until 2006, first in legal limbo because he lacked residency papers and later by apparent choice.
Year in and year out, he slept on a red plastic bench, making friends with airport workers, showering in staff facilities, writing in his diary, reading magazines and surveying passing travelers.
Staff nicknamed him Lord Alfred, and he became a mini-celebrity among passengers.
“Eventually, I will leave the airport,” he told The Associated Press in 1999, smoking a pipe on his bench, looking frail with long thin hair, sunken eyes and hollow cheeks. “But I am still waiting for a passport or transit visa.”
Nasseri was born in 1945 in Soleiman, a part of Iran then under British jurisdiction, to an Iranian father and a British mother. He left Iran to study in England in 1974. When he returned, he said, he was imprisoned for protesting against the shah and expelled without a passport.
He applied for political asylum in several countries in Europe. The UNHCR in Belgium gave him refugee credentials, but he said his briefcase containing the refugee certificate was stolen in a Paris train station.
French police later arrested him, but couldn’t deport him anywhere because he had no official documents. He ended up at Charles de Gaulle in August 1988 and stayed.
Further bureaucratic bungling and increasingly strict European immigration laws kept him in a legal no-man’s land for years.
When he finally received refugee papers, he described his surprise, and his insecurity, about leaving the airport. He reportedly refused to sign them, and ended up staying there several more years until he was hospitalized in 2006, and later lived in a Paris shelter.
Those who befriended him in the airport said the years of living in the windowless space took a toll on his mental state. The airport doctor in the 1990s worried about his physical and mental health, and described him as “fossilized here.” A ticket agent friend compared him to a prisoner incapable of “living on the outside.”
In the weeks before his death, Nasseri had been again living at Charles de Gaulle, the airport official said.
Nasseri’s mind-boggling tale loosely inspired 2004′s “The Terminal” starring Tom Hanks, as well as a French film, “Lost in Transit,” and an opera called “Flight.”
In “The Terminal,” Hanks plays Viktor Navorski, a man who arrives at JFK airport in New York from the fictional Eastern European country of Krakozhia and discovers that an overnight political revolution has invalidated all his traveling papers. Viktor is dumped into the airport’s international lounge and told he must stay there until his status is sorted out, which drags on as unrest in Krakozhia continues.
No information was immediately available about survivors.
___
Angela Charlton in Paris contributed.
___
This story has been updated to correct the spelling of Nasseri’s first name to Mehran, not Merhan.
Activists say since anti-regime protests broke out in Iran nearly two months ago, more than 300 people have been killed and 14,000 arrested, including around two dozen actors and musicians. Still, protests continue in the streets and in the form of art. Roxana Saberi has more.
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Iran is preparing to hand the Kremlin the blueprints for its most effective weapon against the West: the underground financial network it relies on to evade sanctions.
For years, the Islamic Republic has frustrated American efforts to isolate it and starve its economy by constructing a parallel universe of front companies and foreign banks — including major financial institutions based in Europe and the U.S. — that Iranian companies use to evade international controls and conduct business abroad.
As Russia faces increasing international isolation over the war in Ukraine, Iran, which is already providing Moscow with weapons, has offered to share its expertise in the art of sanctions evasion, Western diplomats say. A series of recent meetings between senior Russian and Iranian officials, including Iranian central bank chief Ali Salehabadi and Deputy Economy Minister Ali Fekri, involved laying the groundwork for that collaboration, the diplomats argue.
If Moscow manages to copy the Iranian system it could hope to blunt the impact of many of the sanctions it faces, especially in its oil and gas sector, which forms the backbone of its economy. Such a system would give Russian President Vladimir Putin much more flexibility — and time — to continue to wage his war against Ukraine by keeping oil revenue flowing.
“Anyone interested in changing the Russian state of mind should understand that paralyzing the Russian-Iranian financial abilities is essential,” one of the Western officials said.
The diplomats who issued the warning on sanctions evasion techniques also noted that Western banks, such as Germany’s Commerzbank and Deutsche Bank, as well as Citigroup in the U.S., played a role in helping Iran continue to rake in export earnings through underground transactions. The risk is that the same Western banks — either wittingly or unwittingly — could be sucked into the same style of trade by Russia.
Trans-Caspian comrades
Over the summer, Tehran and Moscow held talks about using Iran as a backdoor for Russian oil once Tehran and world powers went back to a nuclear deal, under which the Islamic Republic would rein in its atomic program in return for sanctions relief. But amid the Iranian regime’s brutal crackdown on protestors in recent weeks and growing skepticism about renewing the accord in Washington, the likelihood of a breakthrough has faded.
Relations between Russia and Iran, which collaborated in Syria to support the regime of Bashar al-Assad in that country’s civil war, have intensified on other fronts, however. Iran has become a major supplier of the “kamikaze” drones Russia is using in Ukraine, for example. Meanwhile, Tehran asked the Kremlin for help in advancing its nuclear program, CNN reported last week, citing U.S. intelligence.
Iran has decades of experience in finding ways to avoid American sanctions but made particular strides since 2018 after U.S. President Donald Trump withdrew from the nuclear deal and reimposed restrictions. Trump argued that the arrangement with Iran was insufficient to prevent Tehran from building a bomb. European countries, led by Germany and France, objected to the U.S. decision but were powerless to stop it.
Even before Trump’s move, however, European banks and companies had been reluctant to reengage with Iran because many U.S. sanctions remained in place and most firms assessed the risk of U.S. legal exposure as too high.
Iran’s remedy was to go underground.
A cache of recent transaction data reviewed by POLITICO between Iranian clearing houses and foreign-registered front companies controlled by the regime suggests that the volume of sanctions-evading transactions handled by the network is at least in the tens of billions of dollars annually. The data, authenticated by Western officials, underscores the degree to which Iran succeeded in circumventing the so-called “maximum pressure campaign” Washington initiated in 2018.
Iran resisted re-entering the nuclear deal with the Wset despite significant concessions by the administration of U.S. President Joe Biden | Atta Kenare/AFP via Getty Images
“This explains how Iran won the maximum pressure campaign,” one of the Western officials said.
It might also explain why Iran, despite significant concessions by the administration of U.S. President Joe Biden, resisted re-entering the nuclear deal. The talks reached a stalemate even before the recent surge in protests in Iran.
While American sanctions have taken a toll on Iran’s economic output, Tehran’s shadow financial network has ensured the economy continues to fire, if not on all cylinders, then at a pace that keeps it moving, while also securing the elite’s privileges. Though inflation and unemployment in Iran are high — factors that have contributed to unrest — its economy has recently shown signs of life, growing by more than 4 percent in the last fiscal year alone, according to the World Bank.
While Iran’s oil exports have roughly halved under the sanctions to about 1 million barrels per day, it has succeeded in maintaining robust trade in other areas, such as petrochemicals and metals. At about $100 billion last year, Iran’s foreign trade reached its highest level since the U.S. reimposed sanctions. Despite the drop in oil volumes, the country has recently benefited from rising prices, with export revenue last year more than doubling to about $19 billion. What’s driving Iran’s oil recovery, according to the World Bank, are “indirect exports to China.”
Iranian oil is attractive to China, mainly because it’s relatively cheap. The illicit nature of sanctioned Iranian crude means it sells at a steep discount to market prices.
Financial frontmen
That’s where Iran’s secret network of front companies comes in.
The oil itself is fairly easy to deliver under the radar by using ship-to-ship transfers in open water and then blending it in foreign ports with other crude to disguise its origin. The greater difficulty for Iran is getting paid for the sales without triggering red flags in the international financial system, which from a regulatory perspective is dominated by the United States. Instead of selling the oil directly to the end buyer, it is sold via front companies, often to other front companies.
Just last week, the U.S. sanctioned the members of what it described as an Iranian-backed oil smuggling ring that Washington accused of funneling money to Hezbollah, the Lebanese-based terror group supported by Tehran.
“The individuals running this illicit network use a web of shell companies and fraudulent tactics including document falsification to obfuscate the origins of Iranian oil, sell it on the international market, and evade sanctions,” Brian Nelson, a senior official at the U.S. Treasury involved in the investigation, said in a statement announcing the new sanctions.
The ability to quietly finance terror is only one of the myriad benefits Iran draws from its underground financial system, however. The biggest advantage is that it gives the country’s battered economy access to hard foreign currency without a single dollar entering Iran’s own banking system. Though most of the funds generated through the network remain abroad, local companies can use the revenue they generate there as collateral at home.
Iran’s surreptitious financial system is built on what are known in the country as “money exchange houses.” The organizations, which number in the dozens, are Iran-based clearinghouses that operate a network of front companies abroad, typically registered in China, UAE and Turkey. The houses are under the close supervision of the regime.
If an Iranian firm needs to undertake a foreign transaction prohibited by sanctions, its local bank can turn to one of the houses to filter the payment through a labyrinth of front companies, making it extremely difficult to trace the true origin, Western diplomats say.
Sanctions smokescreen
A less-known aspect of this underground trade is the central role played by major Western banks. Many of the transactions, which involve everything from oil to scrap metal, are denominated in either euros or dollars. That means that settlement, the final step in the transaction, requires the involvement of a European or U.S. bank, depending on the currency.
According to Iranian exchange house data reviewed by POLITICO, major EU-based banks, such as Germany’s Commerzbank and Deutsche Bank as well as U.S. banks, including Citigroup, have been used by Iran to settle these transactions. Under U.S. sanctions rules, domestic banks and foreign banks that do business in the U.S. are prohibited from conducting almost all financial dealings that involve Iran.
The diplomats said the exchange data showed illicit Iranian export earnings being swilled through the international banking system, but there is no evidence the banks were aware that those transactions were part of Tehran’s scheme to keep the oil income flowing. If the front companies named in the transactions haven’t been specifically designated by the U.S. government, the banks often fail to detect the suspect activity.
Although banks have stringent due diligence requirements to trace the origins of funds, the Iranians have become masters at hiding where cash comes from. Nothing on the clearing data reveals an Iran connection. The transactions in question often involve the same group of companies and banks, based in China, Turkey the UAE, Singapore and India, and range in value from a few thousand dollars to millions.
The lion’s share of transactions passes through the United Arab Emirates, the diplomats said. The UAE’s proximity to Iran and light-touch regulatory environment make it an attractive place for Tehran to conduct business, they said. Those same attributes have also put the country in the sights of European officials. In the coming days, the European Commission is expected to place the UAE on its list of “high-risk” countries concerning money laundering and the financing of terrorism
One of the companies that appears frequently in the transaction records is Hong Kong-registered Hua Gong HK Trading Ltd. It was founded in October of 2018, shortly after the U.S. began to reintroduce sanctions against Iran. Western diplomats say the firm is a front company operated by Tahayyori Guarantee Society, one of Iran’s biggest exchange houses.
Deutsche Bank adopted a policy 15 years ago to reject “any business with parties in Iran” | Armando Babani/AFP via Getty Images
Hua Gong transactions over the past year reviewed by POLITICO passed through both Deutsche Bank and Citibank via Chinese banks. The recipients of the funds it transferred included firms in Hong Kong, Italy and Singapore.
POLITICO was unable to reach Hua Gong for comment.
POLITICO also contacted the Western banks and asked about the Iranian exchange house data. The European banks in question declined to comment on whether they were aware that Iranian entities were behind the transactions highlighted.
“Commerzbank AG takes its obligations and responsibilities under applicable sanctions laws and regulations seriously,” the Frankfurt-based lender said in a statement. “The bank has implemented measures in line with industry standards to ensure that its activities are conducted in compliance with applicable sanctions, including those implemented by the U.N., EU, U.S. and U.K.”
Deutsche Bank adopted a policy 15 years ago to reject “any business with parties in Iran,” a spokesman said, adding that the bank also applies “strict controls globally to prevent and detect evasion of sanctions, wherever possible.”
A spokesman for Citigroup said the New York-based bank “takes financial crimes compliance very seriously, diligently monitoring and adhering to guidance from relevant governments and other verified sources to assist in protecting the international financial system from abuse by illegitimate front companies or other illicit actors.”
Hard to police
Yet executives close to the banks say privately that policing is easier said than done. The banks have invested billions in sophisticated computer systems to root out suspect transactions and have hired armies of financial crimes specialists. Still, the Iranians are often one step ahead of them.
“It’s difficult to know when we’re being abused,” an executive at one of the banks acknowledged. “The people that do this professionally know the jurisdictions that don’t cooperate with U.S. authorities, so there’s regulatory arbitrage here as well.”
It’s not clear to what degree the specific transactions reviewed by POLITICO may have breached American sanctions.
A spokeswoman for the U.S. Treasury did not comment on the specific banks cited by POLITICO, but said that the authority has a long record of closely monitoring compliance with American sanctions against Iran and Russia and would continue to do so, including where it concerns financial institutions.
“Treasury will continue to target these sanctions evasion efforts to hide and move money through the international financial system, and financial institutions should continue to be vigilant against such schemes,” she said.
Violating U.S. sanctions has been extremely costly for European banks in the past. In 2014, for example, France’s BNP was fined $8.9 billion for running afoul of American sanctions against Iran and other countries.
The EU lifted most financial sanctions against Iran as part of the 2015 nuclear deal, which European powers continue to observe. Nonetheless, for the most part, European banks have steered clear for fear of exposure to U.S. sanctions.
While national regulators in Europe are responsible for overseeing their banks, it’s up to the European Central Bank as steward of the common currency to police euro-denominated transactions that run through its settlement system, known as TARGET2.
Critics accuse the central bank of turning a blind eye to abuse of its settlement system. Asked by POLITICO how the ECB policed its settlement network and if the bank was aware of illicit activity involving Iranian front companies and eurozone banks, a spokesman said: “The ECB enforces EU sanctions, and not sanctions imposed by non-EU jurisdictions. As regards EU sanctions, the ECB ensures that TARGET2 does not settle transactions that fall under the sanctions.”
Yet even if undertaking financial transactions with Iranian interests isn’t a violation of EU sanctions, European regulations aimed at combating money laundering require banks to conduct thorough checks into the identity of their customers, a standard called “know your customer.” The EU’s deficiencies in that regard have been apparent for years. In September, the European Banking Authority, which coordinates regulation in the sector, said that officials across the region “need to do more” to combat illicit activity in Europe’s financial system.
Until that happens, Western diplomats say, Iran will continue to use Europe’s financial infrastructure without fear of detection, an example they say Russia is bound to follow.
“This is not a loophole in the wall,” one of the officials said. “There is no wall.”
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Iranian officials said they have identified the “Iran International agent” arrested Thursday as Elham Afkari, the sister of famous Iranian wrestler Navid Afkari, who was executed two years ago, according to state news agency IRNA.
The opposition television broadcaster, which was called a “terrorist” organization by the Iranian intelligence minister on Tuesday, has denied any association with Elham.
In a statement sent to CNN, the London-based broadcaster said Elham “is not an employee of Iran International, nor is she an associate or agent of the company.”
Her brother, Navid Afkari, was convicted of killing Hassan Torkman, a water company security employee, during a protest in Shiraz in 2018.
Initially, Afkari confessed to the crime, but in court he retracted those words, arguing that he had been tortured into making a false confession.
“It should be noted that she [Elham Afkari] is the sister of Navid Afkari, the killer of martyr Torkman, an employee of the regional water company of Fars province,” IRNA reported.
“Intelligence operatives have been monitoring the activities of Elham Afkari for the past few years,” IRNA said, adding that “she was one of the main leaders in organizing recent riots.”
State media shared pictures allegedly showing Elham’s arrest. The pictures show a woman seated in the backseat of a vehicle with barred windows, with a black blindfold over her face.
Saeed Afkari, Elham and Navid’s brother, confirmed his sister’s arrest on Twitter on Thursday, saying that Elham’s three-year-old daughter was also missing.
He later said Elham had been taken to a department of Iran’s intelligence ministry, and that his sister’s spouse and daughter had been released.
“Elham was taken to No.100 intelligence ministry department,” he tweeted.
Since Navid Afkari was executed, his family has faced many court cases over involvement in the demonstrations in 2018.
Vahid Afkari, one of his brothers, remains in solitary confinement, according to the rights group Iran Human Rights.
Founded in 2017, Iran International has been at the forefront of covering recent demonstrations following the death in custody of Mahsa Amini – a 22-year-old Kurdish Iranian woman detained by morality police for allegedly not wearing her hijab properly.
However, the 24-hour news channel’s coverage of the demonstrations has brought it under the scrutiny of the Iranian government.
This week, Iran International said two of its British-Iranian journalists working in the United Kingdom have been warned by police of a “credible” plot by Iran to kill them.
In a statement Monday, the Farsi-language broadcaster said it was “shocked and deeply concerned” by the alleged lethal threats, while accusing Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) of being part of a “significant and dangerous escalation” of Tehran’s “campaign to intimidate Iranian journalists working abroad.”
“Two of our British-Iranian journalists have, in recent days, been notified of an increase in the threats to them,” Iran International said in the statement.
“The Metropolitan Police have now formally notified both journalists that these threats represent an imminent, credible and significant risk to their lives and those of their families.”
Iran International did not name the journalists for security reasons.
The Committee to Protect Journalists said that as of Monday at least 61 journalists have been arrested in Iran for reasons including covering the protests, reporting on the death of protesters, and taking photos of demonstrations, according to a report from the organization.
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Protests in Iran raged on streets into Thursday with demonstrators remembering a bloody crackdown in the country’s southeast, even as the nation’s intelligence minister and army chief renewed threats against local dissent and the broader world.
Meanwhile, a top official in Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard claimed it had “managed to achieve” having so-called hypersonic missiles, without providing any evidence.
The protests in Iran, sparked by the Sept. 16 death of a 22-year-old woman after her detention by the country’s morality police, have grown into one of the largest sustained challenges to the nation’s theocracy since the chaotic months after its 1979 Islamic Revolution.
At least 328 people have been killed and 14,825 others arrested in the unrest, according to Human Rights Activists in Iran, a group that’s been monitoring the protests over their 54 days. Iran’s government for weeks has remained silent on casualty figures while state media counterfactually claims security forces have killed no one.
As demonstrators now return to the streets to mark 40th-day remembrances for those slain earlier — commemorations common in Iran and the wider Middle East — the protests may turn into cyclical confrontations between an increasingly disillusioned public and security forces that turn to greater violence to suppress them.
Online videos emerging from Iran, despite government efforts to suppress the internet, appeared to show demonstrations in Tehran, the capital, as well as cities elsewhere in the country. Near Isfahan, video showed clouds of tear gas. Shouts of “Death to the Dictator” could be heard — a common chant in the protests targeting Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
It wasn’t immediately clear if there were injuries or arrests in this round of protests, though Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency acknowledged the demonstrations near Isfahan. They commemorated the Sept. 30 crackdown in Zahedan, a city in Iran’s restive Sistan and Baluchestan province, in which activists say security forces killed nearly 100 people in the deadliest violence to strike amid the demonstrations.
Meanwhile Thursday, Guard Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh said in a speech that his forces acquired hypersonic missiles. However, he offered no photograph, video or other evidence to support the claim and the Guard’s vast ballistic missile program is not known to have any of the weapons in its arsenal.
Hypersonic weapons, which fly at speeds in excess of Mach 5, or five times the speed of sound, could pose crucial challenges to missile defense systems because of their speed and maneuverability.
China is believed to be pursuing the weapons, as is America. Russia claims to already be fielding the weapons and have said it used them on the battlefield in Ukraine.
“This system is very, very fast, and is capable of maneuvering both inside and beyond the atmosphere,” Hajizadeh claimed. “This means the Islamic Republic of Iran’s new missile can pass through both terrestrial air defense systems and the super-expensive extraterrestrial systems that could target missiles beyond the earth atmosphere.”
Iranian officials have kept up their threats against the demonstrators and the wider world. In an interview with Khamenei’s personal website, Iranian Intelligence Minister Esmail Khatib renewed threats against Saudi Arabia, a nation along with Britain, Israel and the U.S. that officials have blamed for fomenting unrest that appears focused on local grievances.
Khatib warned that Iran’s “strategic patience” could run out.
“Throwing stones at powerful Iran by countries sitting in glass houses has no meaning other than crossing the borders of rationality into the darkness of stupidity,” Khatib said. “Undoubtedly, if the will of the Islamic Republic of Iran is given to reciprocate and punish these countries, the glass palaces will collapse and these countries will not see stability.”
Iran blames Iran International, a London-based, Farsi-language satellite news channel once majority-owned by a Saudi national, for stirring up protesters. The broadcaster in recent days said the Metropolitan Police warned that two of its British-Iranian journalists faced threats from Iran that “represent an imminent, credible and significant risk to their lives and those of their families.”
Last week, U.S. officials said Saudi Arabia shared intelligence with America that suggests Iran could be preparing for an imminent attack on the kingdom. Iran later called the claim “baseless,” though the threats from Tehran continue.
The commander of the ground forces of Iran’s regular army, Brig. Gen. Kiumars Heydari, separately issued his own threat against the protesters, whom he called “flies.”
“If these flies are not dealt with today as the revolutionary society expects, it is the will of the supreme leader of the revolution,” he reportedly said. “But the day he issues an order to deal with them, they will definitely have no place in the country.”
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Follow Jon Gambrell on Twitter at www.twitter.com/jongambrellAP
Iran has deployed mounted police in a bid to contain more than seven weeks of protests sparked by the death in custody of Mahsa Amini, according to videos posted online. The clerical state has been rocked by a protest movement that erupted when Amini, 22, died after her arrest for allegedly breaking Iran’s strict hijab dress rules for women.
Young women have led the way, removing and burning their head coverings, chanting anti-regime slogans and confronting security forces on the street despite a crackdown that has killed more than 300 people, according to Norway based monitoring group.
In a rare move, the authorities have deployed a posse of police on horseback in Tehran’s streets to stifle the demonstrations, according to a video posted on social media and verified by AFP. The special unit is seen standing in front of a row of Iranian national flags on a major road in the northwest Tehran neighborhood of Sadeghiyeh.
Created in 2013, the mounted division of Iran’s police force — known as Asvaran — has been seen on the streets of the Iranian capital in the past, mainly during parades, but it is uncommon to see it deployed during protests.
An unverified image from video posted to Twitter on November 6, 2022 purportedly shows people taking part in an anti-government protest in Mariwan, in Iran’s northwest Kurdish region.
Twitter
Amini, an Iranian of Kurdish origin, died on September 16, three days after she was arrested in Tehran by the morality police, igniting nationwide protests.
The Iranian authorities have adopted a range of tactics in a bid to suppress the protests, which officials refer to as “riots.”
Security forces have fired directly on protesters using live ammunition, bird shot, tear gas and even paintballs. The government has also imposed internet restrictions, including blocking access to Instagram and WhatsApp, and has waged a campaign of mass arrests.
Norway-based group Iran Human Rights, which relies on a network of sources inside Iran, said in its latest update on Saturday that the security forces had killed at least 304 people in the crackdown on the nationwide protests since they erupted in mid-September, including 41 children and 24 women.
The group’s director, Mahmood Amiry-Moghaddam, said in the statement that despite the high death toll, “Iranians continue taking to the streets and are more determined than ever to bring fundamental changes. The response from the Islamic Republic is more violence.”
He called on the international community to pressure Iran to end the crackdown on the protesters.
Hundreds of people have been swept up in the wave of arrests, including protesters, journalists and activists.
On Tuesday, Iran’s judiciary said more than 1,000 people had been formally indicted over their role in the protests, and a spokesman vowed to deal with them severely.
“Now, the public, even protesters who are not supportive of riots, demand from the judiciary and security institutions to deal with the few people who have caused disturbances in a firm, deterrent and legal manner,” judiciary spokesman Masoud Setayeshi said, according to the Reuters news agency.
Among the latest members of Iran’s beleaguered civil society to face charges were two female journalists accused of propaganda against the state.
Niloufar Hamedi and Elaheh Mohammadi, who have both been behind bars for than a month already, “have been remanded in custody for propaganda against the system and conspiring against national security,” Setayeshi said on Tuesday.
Hamedi, 30, a journalist for the reformist Shargh newspaper, was arrested on September 20 after she visited the hospital where Amini spent three days in a coma before her death.
Mohammadi, 35, a reporter for the Ham Mihan newspaper, was arrested on September 29 after she travelled to Amini’s hometown of Saqez in Kurdistan province to cover her funeral.
“Someone’s crime was that her hair was flowing in the wind. Someone’s crime was that he or she was brave and were outspoken.”
These lyrics could cost Iranian rap artist Toomaj Salehi his life. In any other country he could have easily rapped about the day-to-day problems facing his countrymen without consequence.
But because he lives in Iran, Salehi’s fate is quite different.
The 32-year-old underground dissident rapper was violently arrested last Saturday along with two of his friends, his uncle said, and now faces accusations of crimes that are punishable by death, according to Iranian state media.
As many as 14,000 people in Iran have been arrested including journalists, activists, lawyers and educators during protests that have rocked the country since September, according to a top United Nations official.
The unrest was sparked by the death of Mahsa Amini, the 22-year-old Kurdish Iranian woman who died on September 16 after being detained by “morality police” and taken to a “re-education center,” allegedly for not wearing her hijab properly.
“I woke up at two o’clock in the morning with a phone call from Toomaj’s friend saying ‘our whereabouts have been leaked,’” Salehi’s uncle Eghbal Eghbali told CNN in an interview. “Since then we have been worried about what has happened to Toomaj.”
Eghbali says he found out through Salehi’s friends later that morning that about 50 people raided his nephew’s residence in Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari Province, in southwestern Iran.
The rapper is accused of “propagandistic activity against the government, cooperation with hostile governments and forming illegal groups with the intention of creating insecurity in the country,” state-run IRNA said, quoting the Esfahan province judiciary.
Salehi’s uncle said his nephew is currently detained in a prison in the city of Isfahan, and that he has information he was tortured. Salehi is a resident of Shahin Shahr, about 20km north of Isfahan.
“We still do not know anything about Toomaj’s health condition. The family has tried very hard to even just hear his voice, but no one has given us any information about Toomaj,” he said. “We don’t even know if Toomaj and his friends are alive or not.”
Salehi’s friends who were arrested with him over the weekend, boxing champion Mohammad Reza Nikraftar and kickboxer Najaf Abu Ali, also haven’t been heard from since, Eghbali said.
“The accused played a key role in creating, inviting and encouraging riots in Isfahan province and in the city of Shahin Shahr,” a spokesperson for Isfahan Province Judiciary, Seyyed Mohammad Mousavian said according to IRNA.
After his arrest, a short video clip of what appears to be Salehi blindfolded emerged on state-backed news agency, the Young Journalists Club (YJC). Salehi appears to be under duress voicing remorse for remarks he made on social media.
Salehi’s uncle was adamant that the man in the video was not his nephew, adding that the government had political objectives in releasing the short clip. Eghbali also rejects the government’s claim that his nephew was running away at the time of his arrest.
“Absolutely not,” Eghbali said. “Because where Toomaj was living or where we are in Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari Province, basically we have no way to the border. This is a very crackbrained claim. Anyone who knows the geography of Iran will not believe such claim.”
Since the beginning of the nationwide protests which started in mid-September, Salehi, who IRNA said was also detained in September 2021, has been calling for Iranians to protest against the government.
“None of us have different color blood,” Salehi posted on Instagram. “Don’t forget our amazing union and do not allow them to create division between us, in this bloody and sad heaven.”
Salehi, who himself is of Bakhtiari ethnic background, has long rapped about Iran’s multi-ethnic makeup, encouraging unity among Iranians of different ethnic backgrounds.
“Stand with us, we stood by you for years,” Salehi raps in his song “Meydoone jang” which translates as “The Battlefield.”
“It’s not enough to be rebellious, we have revolutionary roots. Arab, Assyrian, Armenian, Turkmen, Mazandari, Sistani, Baluch, Talysh, Tatar, Azeri, Kurd, Gilaki, Lor, Farsi and Qashqai, we are the unity of rivers: we are the sea.”
Days before his arrest, Salehi posted videos of himself alongside protesters on the street on Instagram. Since then, his fans, Iranians in the diaspora, as well as musicians and activists, have called for his release.
“A lot of rappers have come out and supported him,” Iranian rapper, songwriter and activist Erfan Paydar told CNN. “Toomaj’s bravery of protesting in the streets encouraged others to get out there and speak up and made people think ‘if he’s willing to go out there and he’s not scared, then maybe we shouldn’t be.’”
Paydar said that Salehi recently shared a message with his trusted friends which was to be released in the event he was arrested. “You will go forward according to my operation. You are my most trusted person,” the message reads.
“The priority is with the students and workers, you will cover all calls for protests, you will not support any party or group, do not write much about the prisoners unless their condition worsens and they have no voice. Concentrate on attack not defense.”
Security forces have arrested several musicians and artists including two other rappers who were involved in protests – Emad Ghavidel from Rasht and Kurdish rapper Saman Yasin from Kermanshah.
Ghavidel was released on bond and described in an Instagram post how he was tortured and had his teeth smashed. Yasin was subjected to severe mental and physical torture during his time in custody, according to Hengaw, and sentenced to death in a sham trial.
“Toomaj’s mother was a political prisoner,” Salehi’s uncle who lives in Germany told CNN. “She has passed away a long time ago…if my sister was still alive, she would become Toomaj’s voice. The same as I am Toomaj’s voice. The same as many who are on the streets [in Iran] are the voice of Toomaj.”
Since the death of Mahsa Amini in custody, protesters across Iran have coalesced around a range of grievances with the regime. Meanwhile, Iranian authorities have been stepping up efforts to end the uprising. Around 1,000 people have been charged in the Tehran province for their alleged involvement in the protests, state news agency IRNA reported last week.
The trials of those accused will be heard in public over the coming days, IRNA said, citing Ali Al-Qasi Mehr, chief justice of Tehran province.
Iranian media said last weekend that the trials for several demonstrators had started the previous week.
After repeatedly denying its involvement in the war in Ukraine, Iran admitted to supplying Russia with military drones. Despite the military aid, however, Russia is continuing to experience heavy losses on the battlefield. Holly Williams has more.
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Tehran refutes US concerns that the same long-range ballistic technology could also be used to launch nuclear warheads.
Iran has announced the successful test flight of a rocket capable of propelling satellites into space, three months after launching a satellite with the help of Russia.
The United States has repeatedly voiced concern that such launches could boost Iran’s ballistic missile technology, extending to the potential delivery of nuclear warheads.
But Iran has insisted it is not seeking nuclear weapons and that its satellite and rocket launches are for civil or defensive purposes only.
State television reported the “successful suborbital launch of the satellite launcher named Ghaem-100”.
“The flight test of this launcher using the Rafe solid-fuel vehicle has been successfully completed,” it reported on Saturday.
Amir Ali Hajizadeh, head of the Revolutionary Guard’s aerospace division which developed the Ghaem 100, said the rocket would be used to launch Iran’s Nahid satellite for the telecommunications ministry, state media reported.
Saturday’s operation tested the first sub-orbital stage of the rocket, the reports added.
Ghaem-100 “is capable of placing satellites weighing 80 kilograms (176 pounds) in an orbit 500 kilometres (just more than 300 miles) from the surface of the Earth,” it said.
In August this year, another Iranian satellite, named Khayyam, was launched by Russia on a Soyuz-2.1b rocket from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
Iran’s space agency said the device was constructed by Russia under Iran’s supervision.
The US alleged at the time that the Khayyam would enable “significant spying capabilities” and that a deepening Russia-Iran alliance amounted to a “profound threat” to the world.
Iran’s space agency rejected those allegations, countering that the purpose of Khayyam was to “monitor the country’s borders”, and help with the management of natural resources and agriculture.
Iran, which has one of the biggest missile programmes in the Middle East, has had several failed satellite launches blamed on technical issues in the past few years.
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Iran’s powerful paramilitary Revolutionary Guard on Saturday launched a new satellite-carrying rocket, state TV reported, seeking to demonstrate the hard-line force’s prowess even as anti-government protests rage across the country.
Iranian state TV said the Guard successfully launched the solid-fueled rocket — what it called a Ghaem-100 satellite carrier — and aired dramatic footage of the rocket blasting off from a desert launch pad into a cloudy sky. The report did not reveal the location, which resembled Iran’s northeastern Shahroud Desert.
The state-run IRNA news agency reported that the carrier would be able to put a satellite weighing 80 kg (176 pounds) into orbit some 500 kilometers (310 miles) from Earth.
Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh, the commander of the Guard’s aerospace division, said he hoped the Guard would soon use the rocket to put a new satellite, named Nahid, into orbit.
Iran says its satellite program, like its nuclear activities, is aimed at scientific research and other civilian applications. The United States and other Western countries have long been suspicious of the program because the same technology can be used to develop long-range missiles. Previous launches have drawn rebukes from the U.S.
The Guard operates its own space program and military infrastructure parallel to Iran’s regular armed forces and answers only to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Over the past decade, Iran has sent several short-lived satellites into orbit and in 2013 launched a monkey into space. The program has seen recent troubles, however. There have been five failed launches in a row for the Simorgh program, another satellite-carrying rocket.
A fire at the Imam Khomeini Spaceport in February 2019 killed three researchers, authorities said at the time. A launchpad rocket explosion later that year drew the attention of former President Donald Trump.
The Guard’s announcement came in the seventh week of protests sparked by the death in custody of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, who was detained after allegedly violating the country’s strict dress code for women.
The protests embroiling the country first focused on the state-mandated headscarf, or hijab, but swiftly morphed into one of the biggest challenges to the government since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Protesters chant for overthrowing the clerical rule and the death of Khamenei.
Security forces, including paramilitary volunteers with the Revolutionary Guard, have violently cracked down on the demonstrations, killing over 300 people, including 41 children, according to the Oslo-based Iran Human Rights.
On Saturday, student unions in Iran reported protests in at least six major universities across the country. Universities have been hubs for unrest, fueling the protest movement despite the crackdown.
Anger over Iran’s sickly economy, suffocated by U.S. sanctions and years of mismanagement, has also driven people into the streets. Talks to revive Iran’s nuclear deal with world powers, which granted Tehran sanctions relief in exchange for strict curbs on its atomic program, hit a deadlock months ago.
On Saturday, Iran’s currency, the rial, plunged to its lowest value ever against the dollar. Iran’s currency was trading at 360,000 rials to the dollar, compared to 32,000 rials to the dollar at the time of the 2015 nuclear accord.
The southeastern Sistan and Baluchestan province was gripped by unrest on Friday, drawing a lethal response from security forces. Advocacy group HalVash claimed security forces killed at least 16 people.
Iran’s prominent Sunni cleric Mowlavi Abdolhamid Esmailzehi on Saturday condemned the violence in Sistan and Baluchestan as another “bloody disaster,” saying that security forces opened fire on protesters who were only “chanting slogans and throwing stones” outside the governor’s office.
The judiciary of Sistan and Baluchestan announced Saturday that 620 people had been arrested in the province during the unrest, with 45 people sentenced so far on charges of damaging public property and encouraging youth on social media to join protests.
Up to 10 people, including children, are feared to have been killed Friday in a crackdown on protests by Iranian security forces in the southeast of the country, human rights watchdog Amnesty International said.
In several Twitter posts Friday, Amnesty said security forces had fired live ammunition at “peaceful protesters from the rooftops of the governor’s office and several other buildings” in the city of Khash in Sistan and Baluchestan province.
The province, neighboring Pakistan and Afghanistan, is home to members of the long-oppressed predominantly Sunni Muslim Baluch ethnic minority and has a history of unrest.
The violence Friday comes amid nationwide protests against the death of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish women who died after being detained by morality police in Tehran.
Large-scale demonstrations have also taken place recently in Zahedan, the state capital of Sistan and Baluchestan, following the alleged rape of a Baluch girl by the police chief.
Authorities removed the head of police in Zahedan last week, but protests continued and on Thursday, a high ranking Shia cleric was shot dead by masked gunmen in Zahedan, according to state news agency IRNA.
According to state media and activists, protests against authorities turned violent Friday in several cities across southeast Iran, including Khash. One video from the city posted by state media showed plumes of smoke rising from a building.
In its reports, Amnesty cited witnesses and footage it had obtained from various sources.
The group said it was “gravely concerned about further bloodshed amid internet disruptions and reports of authorities bringing more security forces to Khash from Zahedan.”
“Iran’s authorities must immediately rein in security forces. Member states of the UN must immediately raise concerns with Iran’s ambassadors and support the establishment of an independent investigative mechanism by the UN Human Rights Council,” Amnesty said.
The Coordinating Council of Iranian Teachers’ Trade Associations (CCITTA) also tweeted on Friday that at least 16 protesters were killed, and dozens more were injured after Iranian security forces opened fire on protesters in Khash.
CNN cannot independently verify the death tolls provided by either Amnesty or the CCITTA. A precise death toll is impossible for those outside Iran’s government to confirm. Numbers vary by opposition groups, international rights organizations, and local journalists.
A video shared with CNN by the activist outlet IranWire from Khash appears to show several protesters wounded and unconscious on the ground, after loud gunshots rang out in the background.
Meanwhile, the country’s semi-official Fars News Agency posted images on Twitter showing charred cars and damaged buildings, with a caption that blamed the damage on “rioters.”
During Friday’s “unrest in Khash, several people were killed and injured,” Fars said in the tweet.
“The governorate, the building of Jihad Agriculture and several other government buildings, several kiosks and police cars, people’s private cars, and almost all banks were set on fire by rioters,” Fars added.
Fars claimed the protests in Khash took place after Friday prayers at a Sunni mosque in the area.
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran on Friday marked the 1979 takeover of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran as its theocracy faces nationwide protests after the September death of a 22-year-old woman who was arrested by the country’s morality police. Meanwhile, activists in southeast Iran claimed security forces killed at least 16 people in protests there.
Iranian state-run television aired live feeds of various commemorations around the country, with some in Tehran waving placards of the triangle-shaped Iranian drones Russia now uses to strike targets in its war on Ukraine. But while crowds in Tehran looked large with chador-wearing women waving the Islamic Republic’s flag, other commemorations in the country appeared smaller, with only a few dozen people taking part.
Iran’s hard-line President Ebrahim Raisi, speaking to people gathered in front of the former U.S. Embassy building, criticized those protesting the theocracy.
“Anyone taking the smallest step in the direction of breaching security and riots, must know that they are stepping in the direction of enemies of the Islamic Revolution,” he said. “Americans think they can execute the plan they carried out in some countries like Syria and Libya here. What a false dream!”
Those at the commemoration also waved effigies of French President Emmanuel Macron and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Signs and chants from the crowd called out: “Death to America! Death to Israel!”
The demonstrations that have convulsed Iran for seven weeks after the death of Mahsa Amini mark one of the biggest challenges to the country’s clerical rulers since they seized power in the 1979 Islamic Revolution. At least 314 protesters have been killed and 14,170 arrested since the unrest began, according to Human Rights Activists in Iran, a group that’s been monitoring the crackdown on demonstrators.
Iran’s government has not offered an overall death toll, with one state newspaper even making the counterfactual claim that no one had been killed by security forces over the 49 days of protests.
Later on Friday, protests began in Iran’s southeastern Sistan and Baluchestan province, which has seen weeks of unrest. Online videos purported to show people marching in the streets and some throwing stones, with the crackle of gunfire in the background and clouds of tear gas rising. Some protesters appeared bloodied, while later footage purportedly showed dead bodies at morgues.
Advocacy group HalVash claimed security forces killed at least 16 people Friday, identifying nine of them by name.
Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency later reported that protesters set fire to a police stand in Khash, a city in Sistan and Baluchestan, and attacked the local governor’s office.
On Thursday, a Shiite cleric reportedly was shot and killed in Sistan and Baluchestan, a long restive province that’s predominantly Sunni.
Hard-liners within Iran long have bussed government workers and others into such Nov. 4 demonstrations, which have a carnival-like feel for the students and others taking part on Taleqani Street in downtown Tehran.
This year, however, it remained clear Iran’s theocracy hopes to energize its hard-line base. Some signs read “We Are Obedient To The Leader,” referring to 83-year-old Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has final say over all matters of state in the country. The weekslong demonstrations have included cries calling for Khamenei’s death and the overthrow of the government.
The annual commemoration marks when student demonstrators climbed over the fence at the embassy on Nov. 4, 1979, angered by then-President Jimmy Carter allowing the fatally ill Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi to receive cancer treatment in the United States.
The students soon took over the entire, leafy compound. A few staffers fled and hid in the home of the Canadian ambassador to Iran before escaping the country with the help of the CIA, a story dramatized in the 2012 film “Argo.”
The 444-day crisis transfixed America, as nightly images of blindfolded hostages played on television sets across the nation. Iran finally let all the captives go the day Carter left office on Ronald Reagan’s inauguration day in 1981.
Marking the anniversary, State Department spokesperson Ned Price said that officials “are grateful for the selfless sacrifice of our diplomats who served in Tehran” and called for the release of Americans held by Iran.
“The Iranian regime has a long history of unjustly imprisoning foreign nationals for use as political leverage,” Price said.
That enmity between Iran and the U.S. has ebbed and surged over the decades since. The U.S. and world powers reached a nuclear deal with Iran in 2015 that drastically curtailed its program in exchange for the lifting of international sanctions. However, then-President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew from the deal in 2018, sparking years of tensions since.
Late Thursday in California at a rally before the U.S. midterm elections, President Joe Biden also stopped his speech to address a crowd that held up cellphones displaying the message “FREE IRAN.”
“Don’t worry, we’re gonna free Iran,” Biden said in an aside during a campaign rally for Democratic Rep. Mike Levin. He added, “They’re gonna free themselves pretty soon.”
In his speech Friday, Raisi referenced Biden’s comments.
“Maybe he said this because of a lack of concentration. … He said we aim to liberate Iran,” Raisi said. “Mr. President! Iran was liberated 43 years ago, and it’s determined not to become your captive again. We will never become a milking cow.”
National Security Council spokesman John Kirby on Friday described Biden’s comments as expressing “solidarity with the protesters, as he’s been doing from the very outset.”
“It’s going to be up to the people of Iran to determine their future. And that hasn’t changed,” Kirby said.
Biden had said he was willing to have the U.S. rejoin the nuclear deal, but talks have broken down. Since the protests began in mid-September, the American position appears to have hardened with officials saying restoring the deal isn’t a priority amid the demonstrations.
On Friday, some protesters waved giant placards of atoms as a reminder that Iran now enriches uranium closer than ever to weapons-grade levels. Nonproliferation experts warn Iran now has enough enriched uranium to make at least one nuclear weapon if it chose, though Tehran insists its program is peaceful.
Netanyahu back as Israeli PM, Saudi investment in Twitter, and police violence in Iran. Here’s your round-up, written by Abubakr Al-Shamahi, Al Jazeera Digital’s Middle East and North Africa editor.
Even with essentially all his political rivals united against him, Benjamin Netanyahu just couldn’t be kept down. The right-wing politician had spent 12 years as the Israeli prime minister, until March 2021, when he was forced out of office. Over the course of his career, Netanyahu had made so many enemies, across the entire political spectrum, that right-wing and left-wing Israelis, and even Palestinians, all united in a coalition against him. He’s also been indicted for fraud, and faces prison.
No matter, it seems. The anti-Netanyahu coalition collapsed, and for the fifth time in less than four years, Israelis voted. And with the count almost complete (by the time you read this, it could well be done), the results suggest that Netanyahu will be back as prime minister.
How’d he do it? Netanyahu went and made new friends – namely Itamar Ben-Gvir, who once proudly displayed in his office a picture of an Israeli who massacred 29 Palestinians, and Bezalel Smotrich, who has said that the founders of Israel didn’t “finish the job” when they failed to get rid of all the Palestinians in 1948. It’s a glaringly stark sign of Israel’s plunge into the far right that Ben-Gvir and Smotrich’s alliance, the Religious Zionism Party, has done so well in the elections, and in the process has helped prop up Netanyahu.
For many Palestinians, it’s just more of the same. Under the supposedly centrist, current and apparently outgoing prime minister, Yair Lapid, near-daily raids in the occupied West Bank have killed dozens of Palestinians since the start of the year. Meanwhile, as Zena Al Tahhan reports, many Palestinians living in Israel say they haven’t seen an improvement in their situation, despite the first-time presence of a Palestinian party in Israel’s now-outgoing coalition government.
Before the vote, Al Jazeera’s senior political analyst, Marwan Bishara, labelled Israel’s democracy an “utter fiction” because it rules over millions of Palestinians who are denied the right to vote. “Far-right fanatics and bloody generals dominate the absolute majority of seats in the Israeli Parliament,” Bishara says in his op-ed – and that was before the far right increased their seat tally.
Saudis are No. 2 at Twitter after Musk takeover
He might be the world’s richest person, but Elon Musk hasn’t just pumped his own money into his $44 billion takeover of Twitter. Instead, Saudi Arabia’s Kingdom Holding Company, led by Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, is keeping its shares, and together with bin Talal’s private office, is the second largest investor in the new and (if you believe Musk) improved Twitter.
The prince and Musk weren’t always so friendly. The two got into a Twitter tiff in April, when the owner of Tesla and SpaceX first announced his intention to buy the social media company, after bin Talal rejected Musk’s initial offer. Musk’s response was to ask about Saudi Arabia’s views on journalistic free speech. Feisty …
Video of Iranian riot police beating man goes viral
Authorities in Iran have limited the amount of protest footage that gets out by throttling the internet, and banning several messaging apps. But one of the videos that has made it out has been particularly shocking, and appears to show police beating a man, who is then beaten further as he lies on the ground. Iran’s police force has said it’s investigating the incident.
Being an Afghan refugee in Iran is already difficult enough. Add being a woman who coaches a men’s football team into the mix, and life just got that much harder. But that’s exactly what Rozma Ghafouri is doing, even though she’s often forbidden from coaching from the sidelines.
In Brief
Human Rights Watch accuses Bahrain’s government of using laws and other tactics to keep the opposition out of office – The Arab League holds its first summit since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in Algeria – Qatar has made progress on workers’ rights but challenges remain, says International Labour Organisation – Tunisia could be banned from the World Cup over government interference in the Tunisian Football Federation – Michel Aoun steps down as president of Lebanon, with no one to replace him – Ukraine demands that Iran stop sending weapons to Russia – Spanish football fan walking to the World Cup in Qatar has been arrested in Iran – Iraq’s parliament approves new government
“Alaa will either be free in the next days, or he will die in prison during #COP27 as the world watches.” – Canadian author Naomi Klein on the Egyptian prisoner Alaa Abd el-Fattah. The dissident has decided to escalate his hunger strike to protest against his imprisonment. His family says he will reduce his caloric intake to zero, and on November 6, stop drinking water, when the COP27 global climate talks begin in Egypt.
Editor’s Note: Frida Ghitis, (@fridaghitis) a former CNN producer and correspondent, is a world affairs columnist. She is a weekly opinion contributor to CNN, a contributing columnist to The Washington Post and a columnist for World Politics Review. The views expressed in this commentary are her own. View more opinion on CNN.
CNN
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Almost immediately after last month’s blast that destroyed a section of the Kerch bridge connecting Russia to Crimea – the Ukrainian territory it annexed in 2014 – the Kremlin intensified attacks on Ukraine’s civilian infrastructure, stepping up its bombing of apartment buildings, power grid and water systems.
Much of the weaponry for these attacks that are wreaking havoc on the lives of Ukrainians is coming from Iran, which has already supplied Russia with hundreds of deadly drones.
Now, CNN has reported Iran is about to start sending even more – and more powerful – weapons to Russia for the fight against Ukraine, according to a western country closely monitoring Iran’s weapons program.
The strengthening relationship between Moscow and Tehran has drawn the attention of Iran’s rivals and foes in the Middle East, of NATO members and of nations that are still – at least in theory – interested in restoring the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran, which aimed to delay Iran’s ability to build an atomic bomb.
The intersection of the war in Ukraine and the conflicts surrounding Iran is just one example of how Ukraine has become the pivot point for so many of the world’s geopolitical tensions.
A little over eight months since Russia’s full-scale invasion, Ukraine has become the stage upon which multiple battles are being fought.
This is a conflict like few, if any, in recent memory, with grave and far-reaching consequences. The ramifications we have already seen underscore just how important it is – and not only for Ukraine – that Russia’s aggression not succeed.
Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine was never a run-of-the-mill border dispute. Even before it started, as Putin initiated – and continuously denied – his march to war, the importance of preventing Russia’s autocratic regime from gaining control of its neighbor, with its incipient democracy, was clear.
The historian Yuval Noah Harari has argued that no less than the direction of human history is at stake, because a victory by Russia would reopen the door to wars of aggression, to invasions of one country by another, something that since the Second World War most nations had come to reject as categorically unacceptable.
For that reason, Ukraine received massive support from the West, led by the United States. The war in Ukraine reinvigorated NATO, even bringing new applications for membership from countries that had been committed to neutrality. It also helped reaffirm the interest of many in eastern European states – former Soviet satellites – of orienting their future toward Europe and the West.
Much of what happens today far from the battlefields still has repercussions there. When oil-producing nations, led by Saudi Arabia, decided last month to slash production, the US accused the Saudis of helping Russia fund the war by boosting its oil revenues. (An accusation the Saudis deny).
Separately, weapons supplies to Ukraine have become a point of tension with Israel, which has developed highly effective defense systems against incoming missiles. Ukraine has asked Israel to provide those systems, including the Iron Dome and David’s Sling, but Israel refuses, citing its own strategic concerns.
Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz recently reiterated that “Israel supports and stands with Ukraine, NATO and the West,” but will not move those systems to Ukraine, because, “We have to share our airspace in the North with Russia.”
Syria’s airspace, bordering Israel, is controlled by Russian forces, which have allowed Israel to strike Iranian weapon flows to Hezbollah, a militia sworn to Israel’s destruction. Gantz has offered to help Ukraine develop defensive systems and it will reportedly provide new military communications systems, but no missile shields.
As others have noted, Israel is reluctant to let go of its defensive systems partly because it could need them for its own defense. Hezbollah in the north holds a massive arsenal of missiles, and Hamas in the south has its own rockets.
Beyond the Middle East and Europe, the war in Ukraine has also brought economic and potentially political shockwaves across the world.
Russia’s assault on Ukrainian ports and its patrols of Black Sea halted Ukraine’s grain exports just after the war started, causing food prices to skyrocket. The head of the World Food Program, David Beasley, warned in May that the world was “marching toward starvation.”
A UN and Turkey-brokered agreement allowed Ukraine’s maritime corridors to reopen, but this week Moscow temporarily suspended that agreement after Russian Navy ships were struck at the Crimean port of Sevastopol. Putin’s announcement was immediately followed by a surge in wheat prices on global commodity markets. Those prices partly determine how much people pay for bread in Africa and across the planet.
In fact, the war in Ukraine is already affecting everyone, everywhere. The conflict has also sent fuel prices higher, contributing to a global explosion of inflation.
Higher prices not only affect family budgets and individual lives. When they come with such powerful momentum, they pack a political punch. Inflation, worsened by the war, has put incumbent political leaders on the defensive in countless countries.
Now comes a new chapter in the international impact of the war in Ukraine. Some of Putin’s former friends in the far right have turned against him, but not all. Some far-right politicians and prominent figures in Europe and the US echo Putin’s claims about the war. Their hope is to leverage discontent – which could worsen as winter comes and heating prices rise.
And it’s not all on the fringes. Rep. Kevin McCarthy, the Republican leader who could become speaker of the House after next week’s US elections, suggested the GOP might choose to reduce aid to Ukraine. Progressive Democrats released and withdrew a letter calling for negotiations. Evelyn Farkas, a former Pentagon official during the Obama administration, said they’re all bringing “a big smile to Putin’s face.”
The war in Ukraine is becoming an engine that fuels a far-right push for more influence; a symbiotic relationship between Putin and his fans in the West. Just as a political action committee linked to the former Trump aide Stephen Miller is arguing against spending on Ukraine, somehow linking it to poverty and crime in the US, like-minded figures in Europe are trying to promote their views by pointing to their country’s hardships as the cost of helping Ukraine. For now, support for Ukraine remains strong in Europe and the US, although flagging among Republicans.
Ukraine has become the epicenter of a global conflict; a hub whose spokes connect to every country, every life. Russia’s aggression – its Iranian drones, civilian targets, and weaponization of hunger – has already taken a global toll, lowering worldwide living standards and raising international tensions.
If Russia is allowed to win, Putin’s war would mark the beginning of a new era of global instability, with less freedom, less peace and less prosperity for the world.
Cars pass in Independence Square at twilight in Kyiv, Ukraine, Monday, Oct. 31, 2022. Rolling … [+] blackouts are increasing across Ukraine as the government rushes to stabilise the energy grid and repair the system ahead of winter. (AP Photo/Andrew Kravchenko)
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Dispatches from Ukraine.
As Russia’s attack on Ukraine continues and the war rages on, reliable sources of information are critical. Forbes gathers information and provides updates on the situation.
By Polina Rasskazova
Tuesday, November 1. Day 251. According to the President of Ukraine, 40% of all Ukrainian energy infrastructure has been seriously damaged as a result of Russian attacks. Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy had a meeting with the European Commissioner for Energy, Kadri Simson, during which he disclosed the consequences of Russia’s energy terrorism, as well as the measures Ukraine is taking to stabilize its energy grid. “Unfortunately, due to the strikes of missiles and kamikaze drones by the Russian Federation on our energy system, we have suspended the export of electricity to Europe. But I am sure that we will restore everything, and in a calmer time, when the situation in our energy system will be stabilized,” said Zelenskyy.
Iran plans to send more than 200 drones to the Russian Federation starting in November. According to the main intelligence department of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, Shahed-136, Mohajer-6 and Arash-2 drones will be delivered via the Caspian Sea to the port of Astrakhan, in Russia. Drones will arrive in a disassembled state, then, on the territory of the Russian Federation, they will be assembled, repainted and applied with Russian markings, in particular “Geran-2”.
Starting November 1, in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine, the Russian regime intends to start its fall draft to fill the ranks of the Russian armed forces, reported the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine. Under the guise of conscription, mobilization is also underway in Crimea, the nature and methods of which testify to the desire of the Russian military-political leadership to reduce the number of Ukrainians and Crimean Tatars on the peninsula as they are the most resistant to Russian occupation. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine strongly condemns Russia’s intention to start conscription. “Under international humanitarian law, an occupying power is prohibited from forcing protected persons to serve in its armed forces, as well as from pressuring and promoting voluntary military service,” written in the statement of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Mykolayiv. Around midnight, the Russian army attacked the city with S-300 type missiles, as a result of which a number of civilian objects were damaged. The mayor of Mykolaiv, Oleksandr Senkevich, reported that a two-story residential building was completely destroyed and a woman was killed. A fire broke out in another house due to the impact of ammunition and shrapnel.
Monday, October 31. Day 250. Russian forces unleash massive missile attack on the entire territory of Ukraine. In the morning, air raid alarms sounded throughout Ukraine. Out of more than 50 cruise missiles, air defense forces managed to shoot down 44. According to the Prime Minister of Ukraine, Denys Shmyhal, 10 regions were affected by missiles and drones, where 18 objects were damaged, and most of them energy-related. Hundreds of settlements in seven regions of Ukraine were cut off from power. “Local emergency shutdowns continue in the Kyiv, Zaporizhzhia, Dnipropetrovsk, and Kharkiv regions. Today, as in previous weeks, it is important that all Ukrainians consciously consume energy and reduce the load on the network,” said Shmyhal.
Kyiv Region. Due to massive Russian shelling, part of the Kyiv region was left without electricity. According to the mayor of Kyiv, Vitali Klitschko, 80% of the consumers of the capital of Ukraine remained without water supply, 350,000 apartments in Kyiv remain without electricity. As a result of the attack, two people were injured in the Kyivregion. One of them is in serious condition. There was also damage to private buildings.
Kharkiv. According to Oleh Synyehubov, the head of the Kharkiv Regional State Administration, about 50,000 consumers were cut off from power in Kharkiv due to the morning missile strikes launched by the Russian army, which damaged critical infrastructure. In the Kharkiv region, about 90,000 local residents were disconnected from electricity. As a result of problems with electricity, “water was supplied with reduced pressure to some districts of Kharkiv and to some large settlements of the region, because there was not enough power in the power grids for the pumps to create the proper pressure,” said Synyehubov.
Cherkasy Region. Two-thirds of the region was cut off from power supply as a result of a Russian attack on a critical infrastructure facility. The head of the Cherkasy Regional Military Administration, Ihor Taburets, reported other four victims of shelling are currently in the hospital. Work to restore electricity supply in the region continues.
Dnipropetrovsk Region. According to the head of the Dnipropetrovsk Regional State Administration, Valentyn Reznichenko, the Marhanets community came under Russian fire. 40 shells from BM-21 Grad missile launchers were fired into the community. As a result of the attack, a 31-year-old woman died. Another woman is injured. “Almost 30 high-rise and private buildings were damaged in the city. The local lyceum, administrative building, cars and power lines were mutilated,” reported Reznichenko. In the morning, the Russians caused serious damage to energy infrastructure facilities in Dnipro and Pavlohrad. As a result, the system could not cope with the electrical load causing blackouts.
Sunday, October 30. Day 249.The Russian Federation suspends its participation in a formal agreement to allow the movement of grain out of Ukrainian ports, the Russian Ministry of Defense reported. The grain deal was signed by Ukraine and Russia with Turkey and the UN at the end of August in Istanbul, and provides for the unblocking of Ukrainian ports for the export of food and farmed goods. The Russian Federation refused the agreement “in view of the terrorist act carried out by the Kyiv regime on October 29 of this year with the participation of UK specialists against ships of the Black Sea Fleet and civil courts involved in the security of the grain corridor.”
The President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, emphasized Russia began deliberately aggravating the food crisis back in September, when it blocked the movement of ships with Ukrainian food. From September to today, 176 vessels have already accumulated in the grain corridor as they’ve been blocked from navigating their routes. “Some grain carriers have been waiting for more than three weeks. Algeria, Egypt, Yemen, Bangladesh, Vietnam, and other countries can all be equally destabilized by this Russian decision to block exports,” Zelenskyy added.
NATO called on Moscow to urgently renew the U.N.-brokered deal that enabled Ukraine to resume grain exports via the Black Sea amid a global food crisis, Reuters reported. “President Putin must stop weaponising food and end his illegal war on Ukraine,” NATO spokesperson Oana Lungescu said. “We call on Russia to reconsider its decision and renew the deal urgently, enabling food to reach those who need it most.” According to the Minister of Infrastructure of Ukraine, Oleksandr Kubrakov, the ship Ikaria Angel, carrying 40,000 tons of grain, was supposed to leave the Ukrainian port today. “These foodstuffs were intended for Ethiopians that are on the verge of famine. But due to the blockage of the “grain corridor” by Russia, export is impossible,” Lungescu said.
Russian launch nuclear provocations in the city of Enerhodar, in Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia Region. Most of the occupied city of Enerhodar (where Europe’s largest nuclear power plant is located) was left without electricity due to Russian shelling. According to the mayor of Enerhodar, Dmytro Orlov, the Russian troops hit one of the substations. “We are waiting for updates on the extent of damage and restoration of power supply,” he added.
Donetsk region. During the day, the Russian military forces launched 24 attacks on the civilian population in Donetsk, Ukraine. The police of the Donetsk region recorded more than 30 destroyed buildings as a result of Russian shelling. In all, the attack caused fires in 16 settlements, 31 civilian objects were destroyed and damaged, including residential buildings, the city council building, utility buildings, garages and cars. According to Pavlo Kyrylenko, the head of the Donetsk Regional State Administration, as a result of Russian shelling on October 29, 5 civilians of the Donetsk region were killed and another 8 people were injured: in Antonivka, Pervomaiskyi, Druzhba, Klishchiivka, and Yelyzavetivka. In addition, law enforcement officers discovered the bodies of 5 civilians who died during the occupation.
Kharkiv Region. According to the head of the Kharkiv Regional State Administration, Oleh Synyehubov, during the past day, the Russian army shelled the city of Kupyansk, as well as settlements and villages in various districts of the region. “In Kupyansk, as a result of shelling, a civilian industrial facility was damaged, and a large-scale fire broke out. Rescuers are working on the spot, the fire has been contained. Previously, no one was injured,” he reported. According to the regional Center of Emergency Medical Assistance, a 58-year-old resident of the Kupyansk district was hospitalized with an injury during the day. Also, Synyehubov emphasized that hostilities continue on the contact line with the Russian border.
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Iranian authorities announced on Monday they will hold public trials for 1,000 people in the capital, Tehran, over the protests that have convulsed the country. The mass indictments mark the government’s first major legal action aimed at quashing dissent since unrest erupted over six weeks ago.
Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency quoted judicial officials as saying that a thousand people who had a central role in the protests would be brought to trial in Tehran alone over their “subversive actions,” including assaulting security guards, setting fire to public property and other accusations.
The nationwide protests first erupted over the Sept. 16 death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in the custody of the country’s morality police. She was detained for allegedly violating Iran’s strict dress code for women. Although the protests first focused on Iran’s mandatory headscarf, or hijab, they have since transformed into one of the greatest challenges to the ruling clerics since the chaotic years following the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
“Those who intend to confront and subvert the regime are dependent on foreigners and will be punished according to legal standards,” said Iran’s judiciary chief, Gholam-Hossein Mohseni Ejei, indicating that some protesters would be charged with collaborating with foreign governments. Tehran officials have repeated unsupported claims that Iran’s foreign enemies have fomented the unrest.
“Without a doubt, our judges will deal with the cases of the recent riots with accuracy and speed,” he said.
Security forces have dispersed gatherings with live ammunition and tear gas over the weeks of sustained protests. At least 270 people have been killed and 14,000 arrested, according to the group Human Rights Activists in Iran. Demonstrations have continued — even as the feared paramilitary Revolutionary Guard has warned young Iranians to stop.
Ejei claimed that prosecutors sought to differentiate between angry Iranians who merely sought to vent their grievances on the streets and those who wanted to take down the theocracy.
“Even among the agitators, it should be clarified who had the attention of confronting the system and overthrowing it,” he said.
Judicial authorities have announced charges against hundreds of people in other Iranian provinces. Some have been accused of “corruption on earth” and “war against God,” offenses that carry the death penalty.
Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s push to “win the battle” in core technologies and bolster China’s position as a tech superpower could beseverely undermined by Washington’s unprecedented steps to limit the sale of advanced chips and chip-making equipment to the country, analysts say.
On October 7, the Biden administration unveiled a sweeping set of export controls that ban Chinese companies from buying advanced chips and chip-making equipment without a license. The rule also restricts the ability of “US persons” — including American citizens or green card holders — to provide support for the “development or production” of chips at certain manufacturing facilities in China.
“The US moves are a major threat to China’s technological ambitions,” said Mark Williams and Zichun Huang, analysts at Capital Economics, in a recent research report. The analysts pointed out that the global semiconductor industry is “almost entirely” dependent on the United States and countries aligned with it for chip design, the tools that make them, and fabrication.
“Without these,” the analysts said, “Chinese firms will lose access not only to advanced chips, but to technology and inputs that might over time have allowed domestic chipmakers to climb the ladder and compete at the cutting edge.” They added: “The US has chopped the rungs away.”
Chips are vital for everything from smartphones and self-driving cars to advanced computing and weapons manufacturing. US officials have talked about the move as a measure to protect national security interests. It also comes as the United States is looking to bolster its domestic chip manufacturing abilities with heavy investments, after chip shortages earlier in the pandemic highlighted the country’s dependance on imports from abroad.
Arthur Dong, a teaching professor at Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business, described the recent US sanctions as “unprecedented in modern times.”
Previously, the US government has banned sales of certain tech products to specific Chinese companies, such as Huawei. It has also required some major US chip-making firms to halt their shipments to China. But the latest move is much more expansive and significant. It not only bars the export to China of advanced chips made anywhere in the world using US technology, but also blocks the export of the tools used to make them.
With its Made in China 2025 road map, Beijing has set a target for China to become a global leader in a wide range of industries, including artificial intelligence (AI), 5G wireless, and quantum computing. At the Communist Party Congress earlier this month, where he secureda historic third term,Xi highlighted that the nation will prioritize tech and innovationand grow its talent pool to develop homegrown technologies.
“China will look to join the ranks of the world’s most innovative countries by 2035, with great self-reliance and strength in science and technology,” Xi said in the party congress report, released on October 16.
Dong said the latest US sanctions will make it harder for China to advance in AI as well as 5G, given the role advanced chips play in both industries.
“In any circumstances,” Williams from Capital Economics said, “China would find achieving global tech leadership hard to achieve.”
One dramatic, and potentially disruptive aspect of the rules is the ban on American citizens and legal residents working with Chinese chip firms.
Dane Chamorro, a partner at Control Risks, a global risk consultancy based in London, said such measures are usually “only enacted against ‘rogue regimes’” such as Iran and North Korea. The decision to use this against China is “unprecedented,” Chamorro said.
Many executives working for Chinese firms may now have to choose between keeping their jobs or acting as lawful US residents. “You can’t do both,” Chamorro said.
The ban could lead to a mass resignation of top executives and core research staff working at Chinese chip firms, which will hit the industry hard, Dong from Georgetown University said.
So far it’s not clear exactly how many American workers there are in China’s domestic chip industry. But an examination of company filings indicates that more than a dozen chip firms have senior executives holding US citizenship or green cards. At Advanced Micro-Fabrication Equipment China (AMEC), one of the country’s largest semiconductor equipment manufacturers, at least seven executives, including founder and chairman Gerald Yin, hold US citizenship, the latest company documents show.
Other examples include Shu Qingming and Cheng Taiyi, who currently serve as vice chairman and deputy general manager, respectively, at GigaDevice Semiconductor, an advanced memory chip firm. The Financial Times report said in a recent report that Yangtze Memory Technologies has already asked American employees in core tech positions to leave, citing anonymous sources. But it’s unclear how many.
AMEC, GigaDevice Semiconductor, and Yangtze Memory Technologies didn’t respond to requests for comments.
If these senior executives depart, “this will create a leadership and technological void within China’s chipmaking industry,” Dong said, as the country loses executives with years of chipmaking experience in an industry with “one of the most complex manufacturing processes known to mankind.”
While much of the world’s chip manufacturing is centered in East Asia,China is reliant on foreign chips, especially for advanced processor and memory chips and related equipment.
It is the world’s largest importer of semiconductors, and has spent more money buying them than oil. In 2021, China bought a record $414 billion worth of chips, or more than 16% of the value of its total imports, according to government statistics.
But some Western suppliers have already started preparing to halt sales to China in response to the US export curbs.
ASM International
(ASMIY), the Dutch semiconductor equipment supplier, said Wednesday that it expected the export restrictions will affect more than 40% of its sales in China. The country accounted for 16% of ASML’s equipment sales in the first nine months of this year.
Lam Researc
(LRCX)h, which supplies semiconductor equipment and services, also flagged last week that it could lose between $2 billion and $2.5 billion in annual revenue in 2023 as a result of the US export curbs.
The party congress, which recently wrapped up, has slowed China’s response to latest US export controls, analysts said. But as Beijing starts assessing the significance of the measures, it might retaliate. Xi is “concerned” about US plans to bolster domestic chip production as his administration moves to restrict China’s ability to make them, said US President Joe Biden in a speech on Thursday.
“This conflict is just beginning,” said Chamorro.
Chamorro said the most valuable “card” in China’s hand might be the supply of processed rare earth minerals, which Beijing could embargo. Rare earth minerals are important materials in electric vehicle production, battery making and renewable energy systems.
“These are not easily or quickly replaced and China dominates the processing and supply chain,” Chamorro said.
The Biden administration, meanwhile, is also weighing further restrictions on other technology exports to China, a senior US Commerce Department official said Thursday, according to the New York Times.
If either country takes these steps, it could shift the tech arms race between the United States and China to a whole new level.
